The Power of Imagination

Neuroplasticity and our Ever-Changing Brains

Our brains contain approximately 86 billion neurons, with each neuron being capable of connecting with thousands of other neurons, creating an astounding 100 trillion connections (Caruso, 2023)! These connections create neural pathways, which transmit information in the form of electrical impulses across our brains and nervous systems. Neural pathways are involved in everything we do and experience, from unconscious reflexes and automatic bodily functions to complex cognitive processes like learning new skills and problem solving.

Our neural pathways are constantly reorganizing, strengthening, and creating new connections, meaning that our neural pathways are in constant flux. This ability for change is known as neuroplasticity. These changes in neural connections are not random but occur in response to our internal (our thoughts and feelings) and external (listening to music, talking with a friend, reading a book, and so forth) experiences. Neuroplasticity allows us to adapt and learn from experiences and sensations on a physical level. Even now, as you are reading this sentence, your brain is developing new connections and establishing new pathways in response to this external stimulus.

As you can imagine (no pun intended) there are many benefits to neuroplasticity. For instance, establishing new neural connections allows us to learn and retain new skills and makes the neural pathways in our brains more efficient (Gazerani, 2025). Our emotional regulation skills and memory are also improved by neuroplasticity and the reorganization of neural connections. Neuroplasticity is also heavily involved in recovery after strokes and traumatic brain injuries by reconnecting and reorganizing damaged pathways. Despite these incredible benefits, neuroplasticity also has its downsides. For example, the creation of excessive neural connections in the hippocampus is thought to contribute to Alzheimer’s disease. Additionally, just like how neuroplasticity can strengthen and establish new neural pathways that allow us to learn helpful skills, it can also strengthen and establish neural pathways associated with unhealthy behaviours and thoughts. For instance, depression and anxiety symptoms can be reinforced through the reorganization of neural connections that favour unhealthy patterns or behaviours.

Imagination versus Reality: Are they really that different?

Take a moment to close your eyes and imagine a red apple. As you visualize the mental image of the apple, the primary visual cortex of your brain would have been activated in the same way that it would be if you were looking at a real red apple (Doidge, 2007). Now close your eyes and imagine yourself doing ten push-ups. Just by visualizing this mental exercise, the motor cortex of your brain (responsible for movement) is being activated and your motor neurons are building and strengthening pathways for the instructions on how to do a push-up. So, without breaking a sweat or even getting up from your chair, you can strengthen your muscles just by imagining yourself performing a movement.

So, does this mean that you could become a world-class bodybuilder without ever lifting a finger? Well, not exactly. What this does tell us is that our brains are activated in the same way by internal stimuli from imagination as they are by external stimuli from real events and activities. This incredible aspect of imagination is the reason why visualization can be used to practice real-life situations and improve performance. For example, pilots in training will use a technique called “chair flying” which involves sitting in a chair with their eyes closed and visualizing the procedures for taking off, flying, and landing a plane (Dubois, 2024). This training technique is extremely effective and can speed up pilots’ training progress while also helping to establish quicker response times in real life flight situations.

So, if the same brain mechanisms and systems are used for both imagined and real experiences, how is it that we can differentiate between imagination and reality? While still up for debate, it is thought that the strength of the sensory input is what our brains use to determine if a stimulus is imagined or real (Dijkstra et al., 2025). Even though the same areas of the brain are being activated, imagination produces a weaker stimulus than our perception of real events.

The Dark Side of Imagination

Knowing what we know now about how our brains process internal stimuli, such as thoughts, feelings, and imagination, it can help explain why aspects of mental health struggles such as negative self-talk and anxieties about anticipated or imagined events can feel so real and intense. The incredible power of our imaginations can also work against us by enabling negative thoughts and feelings to be perceived and internalized as facts.

As previously noted, neuroplasticity can reinforce and strengthen neuropathways that feed into vicious cycles of negative thoughts and feelings (Gazerani, 2025). Our brains are both very malleable and very rigid, such that once we establish a neuropathway that is familiar, it becomes a habit to follow that pathway, even if it leads to unpleasant or negative thoughts and feelings (Doidge, 2007). Despite the negative outcomes, it is very difficult for our brains to break this habit and take a new pathway. Without active effort and mental health treatments, our brains will continue to take these established, familiar pathways, which can contribute to the development and maintenance of mental health concerns like anxiety and depression.

A helpful metaphor to explain this aspect of neuroplasticity comes from the neuroscientist Alvaro Pascual-Leone, who compares establishing neuropathways to going sledding down a snowy hill (Doidge, 2007). Imagine that you’re standing at the top of a snowy hill after a fresh snowfall, that no one has gone down yet. The first few times you sled down, you have many options as to which route your sled will take through the soft snow. However, after the third or fourth time going down the hill, tracks will begin to form in the snow. These tracks become deeper and easier to follow the more you sled down them. Soon, it becomes difficult to try a new route as the established tracks in the snow are so effective at guiding the sled down the hill. Sledding down a new route takes a lot more effort and energy, so we continue going down the same tracks, making them deeper and deeper each time.

Harnessing the Power of Imagination

Breaking habits is challenging, but that doesn’t make it impossible. We can harness our imagination to restructure previously established neuropathways and replace them with positive alternatives. Many psychotherapy techniques involve the use of imagination to reduce symptoms of mental health concerns. Neuroplasticity plays a major role in the effectiveness of these imagination-based techniques by restructuring the neuropathways contributing to mental health concerns.

Have you ever visualized yourself going to your “happy place” during a stressful situation, or imagined yourself going through the steps to a difficult task before attempting it in real life? If yes, then you already have some experience with mental imagery, a commonly used psychotherapy technique that relies on the power of imagination. This technique involves visualizing an imagined situation, place, or experience and has a variety of applications including guided imagery practices, skills rehearsal, and regulating and processing emotions (Skottnik & Linden, 2019). Practicing mental imagery exercises can be beneficial for a range of mental health concerns. For example, people struggling with depression can use mental imagery exercises like guided imagery to reduce negativity biases and strengthen positive emotional reactions. People with anxiety can also benefit from mental imagery by mentally rehearsing an anxiety inducing situation or engaging in imaginal exposure to desensitize themselves their anxiety triggers.

Can you think of a time when you had to prepare for a difficult or stressful conversation? Maybe you were preparing to ask your boss for a raise or were trying to find the right words to resolve a conflict with a friend. Leading up this conversation, did you find yourself visualizing the back and forth in your head or practicing what you wanted to say in front of the mirror? If this situation sounds familiar, then you might have unintentionally been practicing something similar to another imagination-based psychotherapy technique called the empty chair technique (Erford, 2020). This technique involves sitting down facing an empty chair, and imagining that another person, or a part of yourself, is sitting in the empty chair across from you. Guided by a counsellor, you then engage in conversation with the imagined person or aspect of yourself, eventually switching roles and sitting in the ‘empty’ chair to engage in the conversation from the opposing perspective. This technique can be very helpful for resolving conflicts, promoting insight and self-awareness, working through a personal dilemma, and even processing grief.

As demonstrated with the red apple imagery example above, using imagination-based techniques within psychotherapy and mental health treatment is so effective because our brains process these stimuli in the same way as it would a weak external stimulus. For instance, when a person dealing with social anxiety practices imaginal exposure by visualizing themselves participating in a social activity, their brain processes this information in the same way as if they had actually attended this imagined social activity in real life. With repetition, practice, and professional support, exercises like mental imagery and the empty chair technique can help harness the power of imagination to establish and strengthen new neuropathways, giving our brains a new mental ‘roadmap’ that leads to more positive, healthy outcomes!

References

Caruso, C. (2023). A new field of neuroscience aims to map connections in the brain. Harvard
Medical News. https://hms.harvard.edu/news/new-field-neuroscience-aims-map-connections-brain#:~:text=Many%20of%20us%20have%20seen,the%20human%20brain%20to%20fathom.
Dijkstra, N., von Rein, T., Kok, P., & Fleming, S. M. (2025). A neural basis for distinguishing
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Doidge, N. (2007). The brain that changes itself: Stories of personal triumph from the frontiers
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Dubois, W. E. (2024). Training and safety tip: Master the chair. Aircraft Owners and Pilots
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Erford, B. T. (2020). 45 techniques every counsellor should know (3rd ed.). Pearson Merrill.
Gazerani, P. (2025). The neuroplastic brain: current breakthroughs and emerging frontiers. Brain
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